ST. PAUL, Minn. — With two days to study game film of how to beat goalie Devan Dubnyk, the Flyers couldn’t solve him in the rematch, either.

This time the game was even closer than the score, a 3-0 Minnesota Wild win with a pair of empty-net goals.

Part of the game plan to beat Dubnyk, who now holds a franchise record with a shutout streak of 195 minutes, 5 seconds, was to get traffic in front of him and not settle for shots from the point that could easily be grabbed.

Tuesday night the Flyers did a better job, but not nearly good enough.

The heat map shows where the Flyers generated their shot attempts from Tuesday night.(Photo: Courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com)

“Gotta score in this league to win hockey games,” Scott Laughton said. “You can’t get shut out two games in a row. You gotta score. Bottom line.”

“Sometimes when it rains, it pours when you can’t score,” goalie Brian Elliott added. “It’s pouring on us a little bit right now.”

Historic flooding is affecting the Flyers’ statistics. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time in franchise history that the Flyers have been held scoreless five times in their first 18 games.

Laughton thought he had Dubnyk beat in the second period when he got two whacks at the puck, a rare opportunity to swing at the disc in close on the Minnesota goalie. The defense had shut down the Flyers’ second opportunities two straight games.

“(Michael Raffl) makes a great play,” Laughton explained. “It hit off (Dubnyk’s) shoulder, then get another chance and I tried to elevate it, but it’s rolling and hits his pad. I mean, it feels like our line has three of those a game and nothing to show for it. I don’t know. It’s frustrating.”

The Flyers haven’t scored in 156 minutes, 9 seconds. They have never been shut out in three straight games in club history.

When they can’t generate in close on a goaltender they resort to those shots from the point and quality doesn’t equal quantity in that regard, but it’s a risk-reward battle the Flyers struggle with.

“I don’t think you’re passing up shots from there,” defenseman Brandon Manning said. “As a D-man you’d always rather get pucks to the net. You’d rather that then them getting blocked or them rimming it around (the boards) to the forwards. I think our forwards did a pretty good job of getting to the net, but they’ve got a pretty good top-four (defense) back there and they did a good job keeping them away from the goalie’s eyes.”

When the Flyers did get in front of the goalie and try to take away his eyes or get to second chances, they weren’t able to.

“It’s kind of like 1997 there with the obstruction in front of their net,” Dale Weise said. “There’s just no penalties called. It’s frustrating in a way where you can’t even get any second whacks there. I’ve had three penalties this year where I haven’t even touched a guy and it’s World War III in front of their net. It’s frustrating.”

Here are four more takeaways from Tuesday night’s rematch against the Wild...

The first 12 seconds

Part of what makes a deficit more daunting is how early a team is in the hole. For the Flyers it only took a dozen seconds.

Here’s the opening shift of the game, including a rare miscue by Ivan Provorov. He has Eric Staal behind him and when he fumbles the puck Staal takes over and finds an uncovered Nino Niederreider to give the Wild an early lead.

“Tough play,” said a terse Provorov, who was hoping to leave the locker room before having to field questions. “I should have made a better play.”

The Flyers are now 0-3-2 when trailing after the first 20 minutes of a game. Unsurprisingly, 12 seconds into any period is the quickest the Flyers have surrendered a goal this season.

“It feels like you kind of just restart after that goal and take it as a 0-0 hockey game,” Laughton said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of that, but it’s tough. Third period you’re pushing the pace and get away from the system a little bit.”

New lines

Weise had the Flyers’ best chance of the night, a breakaway in the third period that could have turned the tide of the night.

“You don’t get very many breakaways from the center in,” he said. “That’s a Grade-A chance. That’s frustrating.”

Weise tried to beat Dubnyk 5-hole and that opening was quickly closed.

“Yeah, I was just trying a quick shot,” he said. “He’s such a big guy. There’s a little more room 5-hole on a big guy like that and he was a ways out of the net so I just tried to freeze him.”

Weise co-led the Flyers with five shots. They had some life with his line, on a wing with Wayne Simmonds and Jordan Weal in the middle of the ice.

Weal and Simmonds each had a shot as well.

“I thought Jordan Weal and Simmer and Weiser, they were a real determined line,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “I thought they generated quite a bit, had the puck quite a bit, generated good opportunities. They were a positive, no question.”

“We keep getting plays to the slot, jam the net like that, good things are gonna happen,” Weise added. “Give some credit to Dubnyk. He’s a good goaltender. They defend real well, but it’s more about us. Good things are gonna come here if we keep playing that way.”

Bottle up the defense

Part of the Flyers giving up only 20 shots, their fewest total of the season by three, was that they had the puck in the other end of the ice.

Another part was that it’s in Minnesota’s nature to sit on a lead, even if it’s only a one-goal tally. With a goalie on a franchise-long shutout streak, it’s tough to blame them.

“Last two games I thought we didn’t give up a whole lot,” Sean Couturier said. “I thought we were controlling the play most of the night, but at the same time it’s tough to win games when you’re not scoring.”

An Achilles heel

It’s a universal blueprint if a team can be as efficient at doing so as the Wild: get a stick on a shooter before he can shoot and the puck won’t go in your net.

The Flyers tried to skate through Minnesota’s coverage and when they did, Dubnyk had the answer. When they tried to shoot from the point, he either saw it or it got blocked.

Why does Minnesota seem to be so good at it?

“I think they’ve got good players and they checked hard,” Hakstol said. “At times they were able to do a good job. At other times we were able to generate a lot of good scoring chances. I don’t know how to answer your question. Teams check hard. You gotta work hard to generate good offensive opportunities and you’re not gonna be able to generate the number — we had probably 10 good scoring opportunities in the second period — you’re not gonna be able to do that every single period. That’s the nature of the beast.”